“Biased and based on nothing”: The Kremlin rejects allegations that it poisoned Alexei Navalny with epibatidine

On Feb. 16, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on findings that Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with epibatidine, a rare and deadly toxin sourced from the skin of a dart frog native to Ecuador. Peskov said the Kremlin firmly rejects the allegations, which were made public by the UK, France, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands on Feb. 14 at the Munich Security Conference.

“We, of course, do not accept such accusations,” Peskov said while speaking with reporters. “We do not agree with them. We consider them biased and based on nothing. And, in fact, we firmly reject them.”

As The Insider previously reported, several independent European laboratories were able to confirm that samples taken from the late Navalny’s body contained epibatidine — an extremely toxic poison obtained from the skin of a poison dart frog that can be found in nature only in the equatorial regions of South America.

Later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington “does not have any reason” to question the report, calling it “troubling.”

Epibatidine is a chlorinated alkaloid first described in the 1970s and fully synthesized in 1993. It is a neurotoxin that affects nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, causing numbness, seizures, and respiratory depression. It can lead to death due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. In vitro data indicates the substance is virtually not metabolized in the human body and reaches maximum concentration in the brain about 30 minutes after exposure.

Alexei Navalny died at a Russian penal colony located in the remote arctic town of Kharp on Feb. 16, 2024.